K., the actors Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Piven, the Amazon Studios executive Roy Price, and the journalists Mark Halperin and Leon Wieseltier. What changed? Companies like NBC, HBO, Netflix, CBS and the Weinstein Company are more vulnerable to our outrage than ever before.Īt this point, the list of executives, entertainment legends and media darlings dumped by their companies includes dozens of men, including the longtime news host Charlie Rose, the comedians Andy Dick and Louis C. And yet they held on to their cushy jobs for years. “Everybody knew” is the stomach-churning line we have heard about so many men revealed as serial sexual offenders in the workplace. This might not look like what millennials imagine when they talk about “corporate social responsibility” and “ethical capitalism,” but it’s hard not to see it that way. Lauer’s firing, which is that corporations are susceptible to the moral suasion of the public.

And that’s just the first wave of reporting.īut there’s another, more positive, takeaway from Mr. He reportedly showed his penis to a colleague, bought another a sex toy with an accompanying note about how he wanted to use it on her and had a secret button under his desk to lock his office door from the inside. Lauer’s alleged behavior, failing to fire him seems unthinkable. Reading the just-published details of Mr. Lauer might have been a rainmaker for the network, but keeping him on was no longer worth it in the face of potential lawsuits, damage to the brand and lower ratings. The obvious take here is that the chairman of NBC News, Andrew Lack, made a cold economic calculation: Mr. The firing of Matt Lauer - the “Today” show star who reportedly commanded a salary of $25 million per year - by NBC News is just the latest example of a company moving swiftly to protect its brand in the face of sexual misconduct allegations.

And right now, the market is demanding that companies do something about sexual predators and pests in their midsts. But the past two months have shown that it has also provided consumers with an unprecedented power to make their market preferences heard loud and clear. Social media takes a lot of punches for enabling sexual harassment.

What happened to matt lauer